Using Pettinice And It's Cracking

Has anyone ever used pettinice and have it crack on them? I'm rolling it out and then laying it on top of the cake and it cracks. It even cracks when i'm rolling it out. Can you refrigerate pettinice? I have a cake for saturday and am going to fondant it today. Will it hold without refrigeration?

I want to use Pettinice as it is a lot cheaper than fondx in Australia however I find that it either cracks in the corners or breaks every time i use it. I also buy it in bulk and no matter how airtight I wrap the leftovers, it seems to crust and go hard on the outside and after kneeding it for ages some lumps still remain.

I have tried everything - popping it the microwave for a few seconds to soften it, added water, added shortening and nothing seems to work.

I overheard a conversation at my local cake decorating association meeting where someone was saying her fondant was breaking as she rolled it out on a piece of marble which was cold. Maybe warming the surface it is rolled out on may help????

You don't need to refrigerate pettinice once on the cake as it will harden on the outside. If you put the cake in the fridge it will sweat when you take it out.

I only use Pettinice and it has been so hot here this last week that I had no choice but to put my fondant covered cakes in the fridge. I was worried but they were absolutely fine. When they came out I put them in front of a fan for a while and did not have a problem with condensation etc.

As for the cracking, make sure you're not using too much cornflour when you're kneading and rolling, it will get dried out. If it dries out a lot then use a tiny bit of glycerin to re-moisten it. As for the cracking when you put it on the cake, it's probably to do with the heat and you have to work fast especially on the corners. Have you seen the Planet Cake video on Youtube showing how to cover a cake? She shows a really good technique for smoothing the corners first so there's no drag on them and that prevents a lot of cracking. And most little cracks can be smoothed out if you get to them quickly and push the torn bits back together gently (some colours are more forgiving of this than others).

I find that rolling pettinice on cornflour makes dry and then it starts cracking. My teacher showed us to roll pettinice on a piece of vinyl and to prevent it from sticking to use a drop of sunflower oil on the vinyl. no cornflour or ps to dry the paste!

I only use the pettince brand and have not had a single problem with cracking since using this tip!